Ultimatum

Gr 9 Up—Radically different brothers Oscar and Vance must contend with their father's impending death and the alcoholism and abusiveness that preceded it. After their mother's death, artistic Oscar blocks out his father's escalating drinking and builds a wall for himself, retreating into silence and focusing on the drawings of his family that he keeps hidden. Meanwhile, popular, outgoing Vance, critical of Oscar's introversion, seems to idolize his hard-partying father, embracing his crudeness and often dismissing the severity of his father's addiction and declining health. Written in the first person from Oscar's and Vance's points of view, the chapters alternate between the brothers waiting out the end of their father's life, after his drinking sends him into liver failure, and recollections of the three years that have passed since their mother's death. The shift in time periods and perspective gives readers an understanding of how this family's tragedy has created and sustained the brothers' antipathy toward each other and how they must work their way out of it if they are to remain a family after their father dies. This smart, emotional, and surprising read is recommended for those who like to keep a tissue box nearby or those living with similar issues.